Fluff

This is the starting page into Baystation12's lore, also commonly known as 'fluff'. This is the basic, common knowledge that the vast majority of characters should know and helps introduce you, the player, into the world of our server.

Many wiki pages will start with a collapsable entry like this one holding snippets of lore as told by a person who would live in our universe or a short story to help set the mood. They are mainly for entertainment and are not for explaining game mechanics or the like.

Once again welcome to Baystation12, we hope your stay here is a long and enjoyable one!

The year is 2559 CE (Common Era). With the help of massive arc ships humanity had slowly spread and colonized our sun's neighboring systems. Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, Sirius and more are connected by a network of warpgates that makes travel between systems take months instead of decades. With the discovery of the seemingly supernatural phoron and the acquisition of Terraforming Machines, on-ship FTL drives became a possibility, increasing the speed at which humanity expanded and colonized the stars at a never before imagined rate.

We aren't alone in this endeavor, the Skrell, Unathi, Tajaran and Dionaea, alien species that have allied with humanity, explore the stars along our sides, expanding the frontier ever further for knowledge and profit.

However danger lurks just around the corner. From hostile aliens like the Vox, other, unknown entities whose true names are only whispered in the shadows and existence kept hidden from the common person, are blamed for damaging and causing the disappearances of ships, stations and colonies out on the frontier. Phoron, as beneficial as it is, is still relatively unknown and all of its dangers even more so. Finally, space itself is a cruel, uncaring mistress that countless have lost their lives to from something as simple as a tear in their space suit, and it is commonly known that mankind is his own worse enemy.

It's a brave new world.

Welcome to the Frontier

Welcome to Nyx, a system on the edge of colonized human space, the frontier. You are assigned to work on a station orbiting Erebus, the only known phoron giant in known space. Several Trans-Stellar Corporations (TSC's), the Free Trade Union (FTU) and countless independents hoping to strike it big at Erebus are all vying for control of the system. Even with the fact that Nyx has a stable warpgate, Sol Central's presence in this system is too small, and tends to be hands-off in private system affairs, to do more than police the worst of crimes.

The universally accepted currency by all but a select few systems and regions is the Thaler, which is backed and supported by Sol Central and its allies. It is represented by the symbol "þ" (e.g. 130þ). With the advances of technology the overall standard of living and education is high even out in the frontier, though glaring examples still exist (Like the coloniesBrinkburn and Roanake, whose supporting companies had completely collapsed and left them stranded, for example).

Your Job

Out in the frontier, employers, be they a captain of a Free Trade vessel, a Trans-Stellar executive, or just someone with thalers to spare and in need of an extra hand, are forced to take just about whoever is willing and apparently able. With Sol several months away, running a full background check on a candidate is not viable, which means many questionable people get placed in even the most high-security positions and loyalty is 'by your word', which means in Nyx, corporate backstabbing and criminal activity is quite high. This and a lack of available employees in general means employees who do prove themselves often find themselves promoted quickly, and put into positions that they are even the slightest bit capable in.

Humanity and Allies

The below is a brief overview of humanity and aligned species in the known universe. The links in the name will redirect to further information about the species.

Humanity, everything and nothing can be said about them. They are the primary driving force for rapid space expansion and perhaps the most populated (known and sentient) species in the galaxy. The vast majority of Trans-Stellar Corporations are owned by humans. By this time men and women are treated all but equal, however there may still be exceptions.

While most humans are accepting of other species and simply want to earn an honest paycheck, the best and worst are found among them. You never know what a human is going to be like when you first meet them.

Due their prevalence in current known space, and their ability to encompass all traits, good and bad, humanity is often considered the 'status quo'.

The Skrell are a species of amphibious humanoids, distinguished by their green-blue gelatinous appearance and head tentacles. Skrell warble from the world of Qerrbalak (or as the lore once called it, Jargon 4), a humid planet with plenty of swamps and jungles. Currently more technologically
advanced than humanity, they emphasize the study of the mind above all else.

Gender has little meaning to Skrell outside of reproduction, and in fact many other species have a difficult time telling the difference between male and female Skrell apart. The most obvious signs (voice in a slightly higher register, longer head-tails for females) are never a guarantee.

Due to their scientific focus of the mind and body, Skrell tend to be more peaceful and their colonization has been slow, swiftly outpaced by humanity. They were the first contact sentient species, and are humanity's longest, and closest, ally in space.

Raging in from Moghes, the Unathi are a race of tall, reptilian humanoids that possess both crocodile-like and serpent-like features. They are a proud, warlike species that favours honour and strength, their home, Moghes, is a desert planet but was once believed to be full of life.

Of all the currently known sentient species, the Unathi are the most unequal in gender with females tending to be property of the males. Most Unathi outside of Moghes tend to be exiles however, and with influence of other species the gender difference is not nearly as pronounced.

Unathi were humanity's second contact, and despite their aggressive nature, seem to get along well enough with humanity, though are often considered to be 'second-class' citizens and are rarely seen in jobs other than where muscle is needed.

The Tajaran are a humanoid race possessing cat-like features. Hailing from Ahdomai, the smaller of two twin planets, they possess insulative fur and felinoid stability to better survive in their harsh native environment. Their home planet is a cold planet of vast tundra and arctic zones.

For generations the tajaran were practically enslaved by the leading class who were recently overthrown. While males and females are treated roughly equal, the true division is between the young and the old. Remembering their days of being ruled the older generation pride themselves on
loyalty, while the younger generation are often seen as headstrong.

Third and most recent contact by humanity. While plenty of Tajaran hold reservations with their new allies, over all the alliance is accepted and welcome. Though like the Unathi plenty of humans take advantage of the less than modern education and slave past history, and it is rare to see a Tajaran in a position of command.

The dionaea are a group of omnivorous, slow-metabolism plantlike organisms that are in fact clusters of individual, smaller organisms. They exhibit a high degree of structural flexibility, and come in a wide variety of shapes and colours to reflect the intelligence of each individual creature. They were discovered by the Skrell in 2294CE, not on a planet, but in open space between three stars, a figurative hell that made it difficult to discover, much less contact them.

Dionaea spread by seeds and are asexual, no gender. When grown into their small 'nymph' state, they are known to eat large amounts of dead plant matter and fertilize plants while they learn from those around them, and as they grow further merger into larger and larger forms. It is not unheard of for Skrell explorers to be
traveling in a ship composed of habitat modules and engines of skrell make and the body formed by their diona allies to warble across the cosmos.

Introduced by the Skrell, and quite slow and peaceful, the Diona share good relations with humanity.

Synthetics are spread throughout known space and serve a myriad variety of roles that range from a tiny drone scrubbing a floor to a nearly omnipotent AI in command of an entire battle cruiser. Most known sentient races use synthetics in some way or fashion, very often as prosthetic bodies when their own bodies fail. There are three basic kinds of synthetic found in the universe today:

Android: An android is a robot that runs off of a positronic brain and is usually introspective, calm, and thoughtful. Positronic brains are currently in a turmoil of whether or not they are considered property or free-willed beings that should not be lawbound.

Cyborg: A cyborg is a robot that uses an organic brain to function via an MMI. Cyborgs come in many shapes and sizes and most of the sentient beings that are cyborgs are free-willed. Some companies have used canine brains and brains of other animals to ensure a cheap workforce that doesn't rely on cutting-edge technology.

Robot: A robot is the term to use for any robot that uses more basic forms of intelligence. These are thought of as property in the vast majority of instances and are usually the robots that do the menial tasks that higher functioning beings choose not to do.

Important Groups

These are the big corporate forces, major companies whose reach cover numerous star systems and are nearly government forces of their own. While Sol Central does keep them in check to make
certain nothing too inhumane or against humanity's interest is being performed, they actually police each other in a way. Keep in mind while many corporations do have their own security forces, some of them armed well enough to make some governmental military forces jealous, they are all used for 'asset protection'.

To keep the TSC's in check, and to help protect the smaller businesses striving to just make a
living, the Free Trade Union was formed 200 years ago. Each FTU branch is different from system
to system, but each offer lawyers, copyright enforcement, and even anti-pirate asset protection forces for any non TSC business. All FTU stations are renowned for their open markets where all are welcomed to sell and trade, even the Vox. They're the vocal defenders of the mom and pop stores, basically.

The banner over which most of humanity is united under. They focus on keeping humanity's
best interest in check and tend to keep out of a system's personal problems unless they are in a dire state of emergency. (Think United Nations)

Hostile Forces

As mentioned before, there are several antagonistic forces out in Nyx, a brief overview of
commonly known knowledge is below:

Disloyals

Nyx has many opportunities for less than loyal individuals to get themselves into important positions. Reasons for betrayal are many: some could be looking for money, have a personal agenda, suffering from some form of insanity, or could be more than they appear. Either way, in Nyx, the wise watch their back and do not give out their trust freely.

A bird-like alien species, these scavengers commonly raid stations and ships for supplies and hardware. Often considered barely organized rabble, they are usually only a threat to ships or stations out alone without any backup, or those with lazy or incompetent security
personnel. Cowardly, they tend to only attack when numbers are in their favour, and if not will either run or attempt to bargain worthless trash to gather what they want.